According to Saudi newspapers and human rights defenders,four cases across the kingdom are under investigation,following allegations of violence over the past month bythe so-called Commission for the Promotion of Virtue andPrevention of Vice.

The role of the religious police is at the centre of thestruggle between liberals and conservatives in a countrywhere the regime derives its legitimacy from its role asguardian of Islam’s two holiest sites.

The commission acts independently from the regular policeto enforce the conservative kingdom’s moral code, whichincludes strict segregation between men and women. Itsmandate, however, is broad and its members often enjoy theprotection of the powerful religious establishment.

Among recent cases is that of a man who was allegedlybeaten to death in the capital, Riyadh, after a raid onhis home on suspicion that he was dealing in alcohol. Inthe north-western region of Tabuk, a man died of what theauthorities said was a heart attack while he was detainedby the religious police for apparently letting into hiscar a woman who was not a relative (another offence inSaudi Arabia), His family is asking for an autopsy,suspecting he had been physically abused.

Last week, a woman fell from the fourth floor of abuilding in the Red Sea city of Jeddah as the religiouspolice were raiding the premises. On Monday the Okaz dailyreported that an investigation had been launched inNajran, in the south of the country, after a studentalleged he had been beaten by the religious police forhaving inappropriate pictures in his wallet.

The cases appear to be part of a pattern of abuses. In itsfirst report last month, the National Society for HumanRights, a newly formed government-patronised body,criticised the behaviour of the religious police, citingallegations of beatings and a failure to stick by therules. “There was a feeling that they were exceeding thelimit, that they were doing things without proper ordersfrom the government,” one human rights official said.

The official doubted, however, that serious action wouldbe taken to rein in the mutawa’a, as the religious policeis known in Arabic, pointing out the limited restrictionsimposed after a 2002 fire at a girls’ school that left 14students dead. Allegations that the mutawa’a had preventedthe girls from leaving the building because they were notsufficiently covered provoked outrage in the media.

Some Saudi lawyers are calling for an overhaul of themandate and the structure of the religious police.Abdelrahman al-Lahem represents a woman he sayswas “kidnapped” for failing to conform to the all-encompassing black dress code.

“It [the mutawa’a] has not been able to adapt to thepolitical and legal changes in the country, where there ismore freedom and more rights,” Mr Lahem told the FT. “I’mhoping the pressure it is now under will create agroundswell of public opinion in favour of changes,putting it under the ministry of the interior and definingits mandate. Now its powers are vast, it can stop you foranything.”